I'm actually surprised I keep up with as many as I do, since I'm not a huge fan of talk radio in the first place.

The talk program talent pool is suddenly a lot bigger and more diverse with podcasts than it was with radio, because there's a whole legion of people who have interesting things to say, but don't have the skills to give a Clear Channel producer a spectacular rusty trombone.

The talk program talent pool is suddenly a lot bigger and more diverse with podcasts than it was with radio, because there's a whole legion of people who have interesting things to say, but don't have the skills to give a Clear Channel producer a spectacular rusty trombone.

well, the thing about podcasts is that the podcaster doesnt need to worry about who his audience is and what they're paying the advertiser, so he can say what he wants about whatever topic he wants. Or she.

The point is, now i can find a targetted podcast for every hobby i have, and i'm happy to listen to a guy talk for an hour or two about robotech, for instance, as opposed to the mortgage crisis on npr.

I agree with the diversity being a good thing, but a lot of these tend to come of as Strong Bad's College Radio rule: "Dead air, um, dead air". Which is where the slickly produced stuff has an edge. As well as humor - I cannot stress enough how important humor is to getting me to listen to someone talk for an hour. It could be a podcast about chocolate french toast sex with free money but if the person's not making with the ha-ha I will lose interest.

Those are just be current subscriptions. I have about another 20+ I have formerly been subscribed to that I'll add in sometimes when I'm out. I listen to podcasts while I drive, do chores, or play single-player non-narrative games (i.e. racing, Super Stardusk, Space Invaders Extreme)and while I'm trying to fall asleep (I have wicked insomina) so I need a lot of content.

Take out Legendary Thread too and this is me, since I'm still not convinced that GFW doesn't just talk about PC games. Since I have zero interest in PC gaming, the ratio of noise-to-signal in GFW should better skew towards noise for me to try it

How many times do you have to be told GFW Radio doesn't talk about PC games much before you believe it?

I listen to all the 1up stuff except Legendary Thread and Sports Anomaly. I will sometimes listen to those but I have to be really...really bored.
Giant Bombcast

I love Top Secret: the Bionic Commando podcast. It's so good, you won't even think it's an official developer podcast! Yes that is a backhanded insult at other developer podcasts I've listened to that are nothing more than glorified commercials! This excludes the Bungie podcast which is more of a behind-the-scenes hijinks podcast than just a commercial. But still not good as Top Secret

That being said I also listen to Kojima's podcasts. It's interesting because he usually seems kind of measured and cautious about what he says in the written interviews and such but he's a lot more relaxed here.

Kevin Smith's Smodcast basically gives me an excuse to never watch his movies again. It's exactly what I expect from his movies. The low intensity Brian Posehn-esque tones of Scott Mosier make an excellent contrast to Silent Bob's animated and "colorful" stories.

The amount of good videogame podcasts to bad ratio is pretty amazing compared to...like...everything else. Like the comic book podcasts I've listened to? Oy vey

It is quite simply the best podcast on the 1up network on a very consistent basis.

Show your work.

Everyone says GFW is great, but nobody says why.

Also, listening to Shawn for too long kind of makes me want to hit him. He's funny in short bursts, but listening to his griefing stories makes me glad I don't online game (on anything other than Wii).

The thing about GFW is, you should read descriptions before downloading. The latest one, for example, was an E3 podcast - of course it's going to be mainly about PC games, so I'll skip it. Most weeks, though, it's either a) completely off topic for the most part, or b) them ripping into some PC game and is funny anyway. I have no interest in Age of Conan or some dumb online shooter, but do I want ot hear hilarious stories about them dickign around in them (that usually lead to more off-topic stuff anyway)? Hell yes.

As with most podcasts, the people make or break it, and the GFW regulars all consistently have their moments.

i love shawn elliot. He's incredibly intelligent and insightful, and has a lot of literary history to back him up. He looks at games with an academic's eye, and that brings a fresh, context-rich perspective to the table.

The thing about GFW is, you should read descriptions before downloading. The latest one, for example, was an E3 podcast - of course it's going to be mainly about PC games, so I'll skip it.

And even that isn't foolproof. The last E3 podcast, for example, was with some Dawn of War guy, but they really didn't spend all that much time talking about it. Shawn spent a lot of the time talking about his surreal demo for Postal 3, and most of the conversation revolved around the actual process of giving or receiving a demo from the journalists' side or from the developers' side.

Yeah, Shivam and ringworm both reminded me of the other awesome thing about GFW: Shawn Elliot and the crew often get into that deeper stuff about being in the industry, the problems with the system, looking at all sorts of things fro the journalists/developer's side, etc....I find it really interesting. It really is a great podcast.

Yeah, I do like Jeff Green a lot. He could serve as the poster boy for the Affable Everyman.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shivam

i love shawn elliot. He's incredibly intelligent and insightful, and has a lot of literary history to back him up. He looks at games with an academic's eye, and that brings a fresh, context-rich perspective to the table.

Oh, no doubt, and when he talks about that kind of thing I generally enjoy and agree with what he has to say. It's his fucking asshole online persona that gets me. I realize I'm alone in that, but it's a legitimate thing to be put off by. Like I said - he's a distillate of the mindset that keeps me from playing games online.

i asked him once how it was possible to be both incredibly intelligent and critical, and at the same time a complete bully and douchebag. It amazes me how quickly and fluidly he swaps between the two opposing persona; it's like he's an ikaruga or something.

Usual 1up suspects, BBC Global News, BBC Radio 4 "Best of Today" (angry British people yell at their politicians), Science Friday, NPR Movies. I used to listen to the Ebert and Roper podcast back when Roger Ebert wasn't a hideous cyborg.

i love shawn elliot. He's incredibly intelligent and insightful, and has a lot of literary history to back him up. He looks at games with an academic's eye, and that brings a fresh, context-rich perspective to the table.

*start flame* Shawn Elliot is a pretentious ass and a faux academic. Listening to him talk about anything remotely serious for more than two minutes makes me want to rip his throat out. *end flame*

Oh, no doubt, and when he talks about that kind of thing I generally enjoy and agree with what he has to say. It's his fucking asshole online persona that gets me. I realize I'm alone in that, but it's a legitimate thing to be put off by. Like I said - he's a distillate of the mindset that keeps me from playing games online.

I would see your point if most of his griefing was mean and obstructing people from playing instead of just talking with silly voices.

i love shawn elliot. He's incredibly intelligent and insightful, and has a lot of literary history to back him up. He looks at games with an academic's eye, and that brings a fresh, context-rich perspective to the table.

Absolutely. His 1up blog is great, I think he's the best writer 1up has.

I'm a little surprised that only 2 or 3 of you listen to the CAGcast, though I suppose their tastes have almost no overlap with these parts. (I'm almost done with the E3 episode, and there hasn't even been a single mention of MM9!) I like it because I think they're entertaining personalities with good voices and they put on a really solid show, but it's also true that I put almost no value in their opinions. (Not like the Retronauts crew, whom I would follow off the edge of a cliff when it comes to recommendations of any game that's not a JRPG.) I subscribe to the CAGcast more for the zany, oft-scatological stories of the hosts' personal lives, honestly.

Question: I like Retronauts, but I HATE HATE HATE 1UP Yours, and have only made it through about 30 minutes of any 1UP FM episode before shutting it off. I also don't own a Windows PC and haven't since 1993 or so. Should I even bother trying GFW radio?

1) Do you think this is super awesome?
2) Do you like the Simpsons? Jeff=Homer Ryan=Maggie Shawn=Bart and before he left Sean=Lisa*
3) Can you listen to discussion about games you might not be personally interested in and glean anything from them on the grounds of purely intellectual (game design) or entertainment (Amusing anecdotes that are not mired in in-game mechanics and thus can be understand by people other than the nerds who play them)?
4) Do you wish your dad would cry out in his sleep "YOU'RE NOT THE LORD OF THE RINGS!"?
5) A Japanese RPG titled "Tender Rondo: The Sensitive Saga" is a videogame that you would play, but only out of morbid curiosity and not genuine interest?

If you answer yes to any three of these five questions you should try listening to GFW Radio